[Illustration] The pedigree begins with John Clarke, of Basledon, in
this county, living there the latter part of the fifteenth century.
The family afterwards removed to Ardington, where they were
established, according to Lysons, in the reign of Henry VII. The
Visitations of 1566 and 1623 record five generations of the Clarkes
before the year 1600.
See the Visitation of Berks, 1566. Harl. MS. 5822, 22 b, and Harl.
1532. See also Lysons's Berkshire, pp. 180, 186, and Clarke's
Hundred of Wanting, p. 56.
ARMS.--(Confirmed Oct. 22, 1600.) _Argent, on a fess sable three
plates between three crosses patée of the second_. Sometimes the
fess is placed between six crosses patée.
Present Representative, William Nelson Clarke, Esq.